And Then What Happened: Boston Part 1

Oh boy is this post long overdue. For a few reasons, actually.

First, I went to Boston a month ago. Ha. Second, I've been trying to write this since Sunday night, but I keep falling asleep while trying to write. Like, falling asleep on the couch with the computer in my lap. But all night. Like you do. It is now Tuesday night, and I will do anything to finish this tonight (Ed. Note: I did, and then forgot to post it before I left work. I am clearly still adjusting to writing at night.)

Anyway.

Back in August during the CAN softball tournament, one of my teammates suggested we all head up to Boston for the N.C. State/BC football game. She lives in New Hampshire, and she said it'd be fun if we all came up. What a great idea! I'd never been to Boston, but I also never thought I'd want to go. In case you don't know, I'm a Yankees fan, and I'm kind of irrational about how much I hate Boston. I just never wanted to go.

Well. The city of Boston is pretty awesome. I'm totally glad I went, and I'd actually like to go back sometime when I won't be spending an entire day at a football game. I'd like to do some touristy stuff, you know? You do.

So here we go!

Lucky for me, the game fell on Veterans Day weekend. Since I'd just started this job a few weeks earlier, I didn't have much time off accrued. But Veterans Day was a floating holiday! We get three floating holidays a year, and since I was working the last third of the year, I'd get to use one. So I was able to get off work on Friday to fly to Boston. I managed to get on the same flight as Lindsey and one of the Katies (the only one of the three who made the trip, so she'll just be Katie from here on out haha).

As I was walking onto the plane, I heard the gate attendant say the following to another passenger: "You better buckle up! It's pretty windy, so you're probably going to have a rough flight!"

Do what now.

I would not say I'm scared to fly. I really do rather enjoy flying places. It's just that I have a sort of heights...thing. I don't care for them. So yeah. Definitely not afraid to fly, but you know. Nerves. That's all. And hearing Flo the Gate Attendant cheerfully tell another passenger we were in for a rough flight -- c'mon now. Thankfully, the flight did not live up to her warning. It was totally fine.

So we landed and my old Technician buddy Langdon came to pick us up. He gets out of the car, and he said, "BG what is UP, my dude?" Katie and Lindsey were amused someone else from an entirely different group also called me BG.

Brief tangent: I'm not entirely sure how BG came to be my nickname. Well, OK. Obviously I do because it's my initials, but it stuck with my Raleigh friends, and then my DC friends began calling me BG, too, and I'm reasonably certain I never told either of them to call me that. It just naturally came up and stuck. I like it, so it's all good. Just kinda funny.

We dropped the girls at their hotel downtown, and Langdon and I headed for his apartment outside the city. Awesome, awesome apartment, and a pretty cool up-and-coming neighborhood. We grabbed some drinks with his roommate and his roommate's girlfriend at this really cool bar up the street. They don't sell food at the bar, so they allow two things: you can bring your own food in, and you can bring dogs in. Awesome.

Lindsey, Katie and I wanted a unique Boston experience for dinner. Langdon and his roommate recommended this place called Pizzeria Regina, near Boston's Little Italy. Well, I don't know if you've met me, but you don't have to convince me very hard to eat some pizza. And everyone we asked raved about Pizzeria Regina, calling it the best pizza in Boston.

After a couple of drinks with Langdon, he pointed me in the direction of the subway, and I worked my way downtown to meet the girls. The restaurant was going to be, like, a 15-minute walk from their hotel, so we decided to cab it. Pizzeria Regina looked legit from the outside. It's a pretty small place, so waiting outside is almost guaranteed. But they do it right, with heat lamps and benches outside. Very nice. We were a small party, so we didn't have to wait long.

Naturally, we ordered a couple of bottles of wine to get the night started right, as you can see in the photo. You know how we roll. We end up deciding on a margherita pizza with green peppers added. See the photo. It was redonk. Lindsey asked the waitress for some ranch for the pizza. In what I imagine to be true Boston style, the waitress looked right at her and said, "Oh we don't do ranch here. I'll bring you what we do have. It's better anyway."

Well then.

It was some kind of oil and garlic mixture. It was, of course, quite good. The pizza was amazing -- I can't say "best pizza in Boston" because it's the only pizza I had in Boston. But I will say I don't believe the claim to be ridiculous. At all. The walls were lined with pictures of famous people who'd eaten there and left their autographs, including a photo of our waitress with Danny DeVito. Lindsey and Katie took a picture of an autographed Leonardo DiCaprio photo on the wall, uploaded it to Facebook and tagged all three of us in it. Like you do.

So obviously with two bottles of wine, we'd built up a solid buzz already. We finished with dinner around 9ish and cabbed back to the girls' hotel. We had, like, half a bottle of wine we needed to polish off before we headed out for the night.

A few frantic phone calls between Langdon, my cousin Justine (who also lives in Boston), Carnell (who also made the trip to Boston) and one of the three of us eventually led to us settling on going to this place called Hong Kong. We were told it was a grimy place with fun drink specials where you can really dance.

I mean. Sign me up.

So we went to Hong Kong, and it was exactly as described (read: awesome). Check out the drink special. It's called a scorpion bowl. I'd never heard of these things before, but it's basically fruit juice, sugar and the cheapest brandy and liquor you can imagine. In a giant bowl. With four straws. Aaaand we drank two of them between the four of us (Katie, Lindsey, Carnell and me). And then the dancing started. And it was, predictably, incredible. Gah we had such a good time.

So the four of us were dancing in a circle when this girl came up behind me, grabbed me around the waist and started dancing with me. I mean. I'll allow it. She seemed...interested (to say the least haha). After a while, she looked at me and said, "You do not move. I'm not done with you. I have to go get a drink." Well OK. What's your name? Let's just say she shared a name with a recent ex-girlfriend of mine. Because of course she did. Lulz. No matter. She never reappeared after leaving.

The dancing and drinking continued, and we decided to leave around 2 a.m. The girls' hotel was close enough to walk to from Hong Kong. Langdon's apartment was decidedly not haha. Here's my least favorite thing about the city of Boston: their subway closes at midnight! What in the world!

It has to be collusion between the city and cab drivers, who are all assholes because they can be super selective. They know we all have to get a cab, so it's insanely competitive. I've never seen anything like it.

Obviously, I am not a cute girl, nor was I wearing revealing clothing, so it took me a solid HOUR to get a cab. An hour! I finally made it back to Langdon's around 3:30 a.m. He offered me a glass of wine, which I'm pretty sure I aggressively declined. Look, we needed to go to sleep. We had to wake up the next morning at 8 a.m. to pick up J. Mike from the airport!

And so we did.

Come back for part 2, which may or may not be the conclusion, depending on how much I write haha. Anyway, it will include such exciting details as the explanation for the title of these posts ("And then what happened?!"), our encounter with a (probably drunk) Boston transportation employee on the T and J. Mike attempting to fight cabs in the middle of the street, like you do.

Later!

-BG

Hooray Weather!

Finally!

Awesome weather has returned to the DC area! For the better part of the past two weeks, at least, it's been awful. Cold. Rainy. Cloudy. Dreary. Blegh.

But yesterday was different. Sunny! High temperature in the 60s!

This week, I decided to bump up my mileage for running. For the past month or so, I'd been running four miles on Tuesday and Thursday, and then running five miles on the weekend (whichever day I didn't have to wake up early for whatever sport was happening).

I figured it was time to up the difficulty and run five miles on Tuesday and Thursday and six miles on the weekend. So yesterday was the first weekday I was going to run five miles. When I woke up to walk Allie and felt and saw how excellent the weather was outside, I was immediately pumped. Already, "The Distance" was humming in my head, and I just couldn't wait.

And oh man. It was a fantastic run. I ran every bit of the five miles and finished in just more than 46 minutes. While nine-minute miles may not seem impressive, it's important to note I had to really bust my ass to finish ONE mile in nine minutes last year. Now, I'm running all five miles in right around nine minutes each. Miles 1 and 2 were in the 8:30-8:40 range because I was pacing myself to try to run the entire time. Mile 3, as I've mentioned, is a lot of uphill, so I'm slower there. But still. Clear improvement.

It's also important to note if I can finish my next half-marathon with nine-minute miles, I'll finish in under two hours, which would be a 20-minute improvement over my first race. Needless to say, I'm really excited with my progress so far.

And, again, finally it did NOT rain on a Tuesday. Seems like that's the first time in a month. We've only been able to play one softball game, despite the season being a month old already. Before last night, we were 1-1 on the season. We lost our first game -- a game we should have won, but we had a bunch of errors in one inning that allowed a bunch of runs to score. And we picked up a forfeit victory last week.

We had two games last night against the same team. Allegedly, according to Andrew, this team was previously undefeated. Well, we beat them twice, 8-7 and 9-8. Let's GO.

I am compelled to mention our team almost entirely the same team that went 2-13 in the CAN softball league over the summer. Well, we won as many games last night as we did in that entire season. But not without making it interesting.

The first game was tight throughout. We were winning 6-5 going into the bottom of the final inning. We were the home team for the first game and the visiting team for the second. All we had to do was hold them to win. Of course, they scored a run to tie the game.

In the bottom of the final inning, we loaded the bases with two outs, but a harmless pop up ended the inning. The top of the first extra inning, their first hitter hit a ball so far we didn't even bother chasing it. Home run. They were up 7-6. We managed to hold them there, though.

Then we finally came through and scored two runs in the bottom of the inning to win. Dale scored the winning run on a throwing error, which is something we're usually accustomed to happening to us. So it was nice to be on the winning end for once.

We led the second game by a decent margin for most of the game. We played solid defense throughout, and scored runs in almost every inning. One of the better games we've played in either league. Up until the last inning.

We were up 9-5 going into the other team's last at-bat. We changed pitchers for the last inning because he wanted a save haha. He then loaded the bases with no outs to bring the tying run to the plate. In his defense, he yanked himself from the game right then haha. He knew what was at stake.

Evan got a quick out, but we were still facing a bases-loaded situation with one out. A couple of hits and errors later, and it was a 9-8 game. They had players on first and second base with one out.

Their next hitter smacked a liner right at Brent at shortstop. He grabbed it and saw the runner at second off the bag. His throw was a little low, but Jen broke out a Mark Teixeira-like scoop at second, beating the runner back to the base and securing the win. What a finish.

We're 3-1! I can't imagine any teams being all that much better than the team we played last night. Also, the improvement we've shown since the CAN league is incredible! I knew it would happen, and I totally called it this summer. We have so many people who are such solid players; we just needed to play together more often.

I didn't have a great night offensively. A couple of hits, a run scored. Nothing noteworthy. But I played first base for the entire first game and 2/3 of the second game. Wow, I loved it. Like, a lot.

I loved joking with the opposing players when they reached first. I loved being involved in some way in almost every play. I was able to field a couple of grounders cleanly and make some solid plays with the pitcher covering first. I missed a couple of scoop opportunities, but I blocked a couple of others from getting through.

Although, I did come away with a nice bruise on my left index finger. Our infielders really have to throw it hard to first to beat the runners, and one time I felt a throw from Sean hit my finger inside the glove a little more directly than I would have liked haha. Aaand bruise.

Anyway, I'm totally going to campaign to play first base in every game I can. Loved it. Let's go Pack! Keep it rolling now!

So yeah. Thank God the weather has turned for the better this week. It's supposed to be LEGIT awesome throughout the weekend, too. It's going to be a HUGE next few days, tomorrow especially. Feel free to IM me and discuss it if you'd like. Suffice it to say, I'm pumped.

And then Friday, there are preliminary plans to hit one or more of our favorite bars downtown. Great success.

Saturday, flag football in the morning, and a ridiculous day planned because a friend of Katie's is moving away. Katie promised me the day, which includes stops at several bars, WILL end in dancing. GREATER success!

And next week? Whooooaaa boy. Raleigh on Friday night to go out for Mike's birthday. It's also Laura's birthday so she should definitely make it out, too. And then Charlotte for Kirk/Liz's wedding on Saturday? Wow. WOW. That's a lot of dancing potential. GREATEST success!

CAN'T WAIT.

-BG

Wednesday Rambles

It's going to be hard to top my single life post. According to Google Analytics, the blog received more visitors on Monday than any other day since I've had it. The post is already the fourth-most clicked individual post, which is crazy because it needed only one day to eclipse some posts that have had weeks to accumulate clicks.

Do you remember those old IMChaos links you could put in your AIM profiles, and it would tell you exactly which screennames clicked on it? Damn I wish Google Analytics worked that way haha. Alas, it does not. It cannot tell me who clicks my posts. So fear not, blog stalkers. Also, I love all of you for clicking anyway, so whatevs.

There'd be no point in writing if no one read it, so I'm just glad people find whatever reason they may have to read. And a HUGE thanks for that!

So I got to run my four miles in the rain again today. Kick. Ass. Also, I kicked the run's ass. Ran four miles in 38 minutes -- my second-best time ever on that distance.

Normally when I run, I go really hard for the first mile because I'm trying to finish a mile in under eight minutes. I'm getting there. I think my best mile time right now is 8:07? Either way. The problem with that is it takes enough out of me that by the time the uphill mile 3 rolls around, I have to walk for a few minutes, which really sabotages my total four-mile time.

Today, I decided to take it easy, run casually and try to get a decent time. I still finished mile 1 in 8:42 -- not bad at all for taking it easy. I was able to run the first three miles without stopping, which is impressive because half of mile 3 is straight uphill.

Turns out the strategy worked, as I finished in 38:34. Damn good day!

Although I do have a slight groin situation going on. I don't think it's pulled (THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID), but something isn't right. I might postpone my third run this week until Saturday morning. I'll stretch hardcore for the next few days and see where we are this weekend.

I have to make sure I can play flag football! We're playing Maryland on Sunday morning, and we have a great chance to get a big division win.

We narrowly lost to No. 2 Michigan this past weekend, 20-13. We had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead with no time on the clock, but the fourth-down pass fell to the ground. We have a LEGIT flag football team, though. CAN'T WAIT to make some noise in the league this year.

Also, since when did Tuesday become the official rain day? This is, like, week FOUR of our softball season, and we've played exactly ONE game due to rain outs and cancellations. C'mon now.

So Rosh Hashanah starts at sundown tonight. If I were a better Jew I could tell you what that means, but, alas, I'm not, so I can't. Besides, I'm technically not at all Jewish, since my mom is Catholic. But you know, as that T-shirt I saw last year said, I'm Jew-ish.

It's the Jewish new year, and apparently it will be the year 5772. So Happy Jew Year to you and yours. I've got nothing else to say here. Lulz.

I went to Giant and bought one of the Jewish memorial candles you light for loved ones. It was 53 cents. I think I can swing that. You light it at sundown, and it burns for 24 hours. It's for my grandfather, who passed away when I was a freshman in college.

He deserves a post on this blog, so I'll probably write one for the anniversary of his passing next month.

Jon texted me today to let me know his parents recently purchased a condo on a lake in Charlotte. Their downstairs neighbor? Pia Sundhage, the U.S. women's soccer coach. Naturally, being the excellent friend he is, he's going to talk to her to try to get me set up with Hope Solo. Obviously.

This much is inarguable: I am, today, one step closer to marrying her than I was yesterday. Don't stop believin'.

So that movie "50/50" comes out this weekend. I'm pretty sure I've talked about it here a few times, so I wont rehash my thoughts on it. But all the trailers I've seen have made me really want to see it. And the song in the trailer, "Do the Panic" by Phantom Planet, is so, so good. Love it.

Anyway. Sorry this post was so terrible haha. My groin hurts. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Lulz. I'll try to be funny on Friday; I promise.

Again, thank you a million times to everyone who stops by to read this blog. I just love writing so much, and I hope you get even a fraction of the enjoyment out of reading it as I get out of writing it.

Life is good, friends. Life is really, really good.

-BG

Weekend Outlook!

Warning: rambling ahead.

Ladies and gentlemen, the sun! For the first time in FOUR days.

Let me tell you about this rain. This week, I was supposed to have my first game in our new softball league on Tuesday night. Canceled because of rain. Then, all the rain we've had over the past 36-48 hours has caused the National Park Service to cancel all park activities for the whole weekend, which means N.C. State's first two flag football games against Johns Hopkins and Iowa are washed out.

Oh well. I got a lot of rain running in this week. And I mean, that's nice and all, but I'm tired of the rain!

So! Running recap for the week: I ran 13 miles this week -- four on Monday, five on Wednesday and four more today. Today's run, whew. When the weather says 100 percent humidity, go back inside and sit down. Seriously. On the brightside, I lost enough water weight to hit 185 on the scale today. That's not official or anything, but it sure is fun to see. :-)

Well, it's Friday, so that means tonight will be spent downtown with many of the usual suspects. A bartender a couple of my friends know pretty well at our favorite bar -- the Bottom Line -- is working her last shift tonight because she's moving to Key West. Couple that with their usual Friday happy hour specials of $1- and $2-beers, and there's really no way we can avoid it.

Although I may make a pit stop at another place first with my buddy Evan because, as I told him, he makes compelling arguments and I wish to subscribe to his newsletter. Lulz.

Tomorrow! The first official alumni group game-watch of the season for N.C. State football! We're going to get together at a bar in Arlington to watch the Wake Forest game. CAN'T WAIT. I know I've said this before, but it is so great to be surrounded by N.C. State people.

Sunday! NFL Sundays start again! I'm going to see if a few of my friends are watching games anywhere. My brother and I had a pretty sweet bar near Foggy Bottom where we watched games last year, but it's kind of small. And you might get stuck on a tiny, non-HD television for your game (I know, #firstworldproblems). So if we can find another good place, that wouldn't be the worst.

Looking back over the weekend's plans, it's a good thing I ran the 5K on Saturday and 13 more miles over the past week. Because that's going to be a lot of drinking. Hey oh! I'll take it. We have a really ridiculously good time.

In other words, awesome weekend coming up. Really can't wait.

Job front: I ended up not getting that job I was talking about over the past few weeks. But I applied to, like, 25 more jobs this week, and a few of them are really, really solid leads. So I remain optimistic and hopeful as ever! Life is good, my friends. Life is good.

Some posts I'm thinking about writing over the next week or two: a story about my wisdom teeth surgery in honor of my friend Big Jon, who's having his out pretty soon; a reflection on being single, how I've never really ever been single before (lulz) and how it's actually been really awesome for my mental and physical health haha.

Also, I have definitely decided to go to Raleigh next weekend. So, friends, mark your calendars! My only real requirement: I must go to Lilly's Pizza at some point. Like, I need it, OK?

See you soon, kids!

-BG

Updates!

I wrote entirely too much last week. I wouldn't be surprised if most people didn't even bother to read it all. So let's just update a few ongoing things, shall we? We shall.

Ribs Update

Shit hurts, man. It's improving daily, but you know. I'm over it. I sneezed twice this weekend (BREAKING NEWS!), and the good news there is they didn't make me almost pass out. It's the little things, folks.

I definitely can't run. I tried. Bad decision. I'm hoping another week of rest, ice packs and painkillers will make it so I can get back to the gym next week. It's kind of driving me crazy that I can't work out.

For now, I'm limited to walking Allie four miles a day. In the meantime, there will be a lot of couch time with an ice pack planted on my ribs. Stretching it out seems to help, so there you go.

So interesting, I know.

Weight-Loss Update

For, like, a month there, it seemed like we were playing softball at least twice a week. You may be thinking, "oh hey! Lots of exercise! Nice!" And yes, that's true. But it also meant more beer and bar food than I'm usually accustomed to consuming. Aaaand it sort of led to a little more cheat meals than I'd like. But it's OK.

It was exactly as awesome as it sounds.

Thankfully, I'm holding steady at 194-195 pounds for now, which is a loss of 32-33 pounds since mid-April. I'll take it, man. I'll take it.

Today is all about rededicating to cutting out the nonsense food again, and as soon as I can get back in the gym, you better believe I'll be hitting it hard six days a week. For now, I'll just have to be satisfied with walking Allie four miles a day. It doesn't seem smart to try to work out with any kind of intensity with this rib stuff going on. Oh well. Soon!

The excellent news is I'm still on track to reach my goal of 180 pounds in the timetable I originally set back in April. The first couple of months went so well, so quickly, there was room for a bit of a plateau, even if it was more than a little self-induced. Just keep on, keepin' on, man. I'll get there. I know it.

Weekend Update

So I knew I liked Bottom Line, a bar downtown near Farragut Square. We'd gone there a few times during softball season, and it was my kind of place. I liked it immediately, in fact.

On Friday night, I met a bunch of friends there and discovered Bottom Line's ridiculous happy hour specials.

From 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., they have $1 Miller Light bottles. The price goes up to $2 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., and to $2.50 from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. Pretty sure they go back to $1 at 11 p.m., too. That's incredible!

Got there a little before 6, so we got to take full advantage of the special price. It's just such a great place to waste some time. And, in case you missed it, $1 beers! From there, we headed to a place called Local 16, which is actually pretty close to my old Columbia Heights stomping grounds. Local 16 was all right and all, but two drinks there cost twice as much as the five I had at Bottom Line.

I know they were regularly priced for bars downtown, but I did not appreciate the juxtaposition haha. But there was a LOT more dancing at Local 16, and we all know how I feel about dancing. We left that place around 2 or so. By the time I got to sleep, it was nearing 5 a.m. Hey oh.

I went to sleep on Saturday morning the same time I woke up the Saturday morning before.

All of that goes to say most of Saturday was spent asleep. I walked the dog, ran a few errands and fell asleep. And it was magnificent. All in all, Friday was well worth it. Let's go.

Job Update

Still waiting to hear. As far as I know, I'm a finalist for the position I mentioned briefly over the past few weeks. I feel good, and I'm optimistic.

I think I may be hearing something in the next few days. C'moooon good news. I'm ready.

Football Update

Yes. So college football season is almost upon us, and a bunch of friends are planning a road trip to Boston for the N.C. State-Boston College game on Nov. 12. We first started discussing it during the ridiculous CAN softball tournament, and it seemed like such a great idea, so why not?

I've never been to Boston. Truthfully, I never imagined I'd ever go, nor did I particularly want to go, really. But whatevs. I've heard good things. I have a friend and a cousin who live there, and I have no doubt it will be awesome. I'm looking forward to it.

Plus, N.C. STATE FOOTBALL! Man, let's go.

Well that's still a pretty long post, but it's reasonable for me, I suppose. Until next time!

-BG

Not Illegal, but Frowned Upon Part 3

Welcome to what I intend to be the exciting conclusion of the CAN Softball Tournament Saga. Did you miss parts 1 and 2? Check 'em out!

Part 1
Part 2

So my ribs. It is now Friday afternoon, and they have progressed from agonizingly painful to only sort of painful. Great success! Still hurts, but it doesn't make me want to lay down and go to sleep anymore.

Except for an incident Wednesday night. I'd discovered if I lay on the couch on my right side with my left arm extended over/resting on my head, I could breathe mostly pain-free. I was feeling better, and I got a little cocky. I felt a sneeze coming on, and instead of holding it in as I had been since Sunday, I let it come out.

Oh. My. God. It was so painful I actually got dizzy from it and had to lie down to keep from passing out. Incredible. So that happened. I'd never experienced the whole "seeing stars" phenomenon before. Yikes. Still improving though. We're getting there.

So we lost to Cornell, eliminating us from the tournament. Howevah! My goal going into the tournament was to win at least one game since there were going to be PLENTY of teams who couldn't say they won a game. I thought that would be a solid accomplishment, and we did it. Great success.

Our game was done by 1:30, and there were a ton of games still going on, so we moved our tent back from the dugout to the chairs we'd set up and commenced the drinking-and-relaxing portion of the tournament.

We saw some pretty exciting games that day, but really the best part was our tent was squarely in the shade with a clear view of the field. So we didn't need to move at all to watch games. It was fantastic. The beer was flowing, and the weather was excellent at the moment. Our tent was close to Central Florida's tent, and they had a cornhole set.

Lindsey had the brilliant idea to ask them if we could play. Cornhole for the WIN. It started off with Lindsey and Carnell against Brent and me.

Here's the thing about Lindsey and cornhole: she's a machine. She lands three bags on the board every round. It was incredible.

She was clearly the best player of the four of us who were playing at any give time.

I'm a much streakier player. I'll get one or two on the board each round. I very rarely miss the board entirely. But then I'll throw three cornholes in a row in the same round and make up for my streaky play. I just wish I could harness that power more often. Alas, I probably won't.

I did that in two separate games Sunday. Let's go. The first picture in this post seems to be my "IT'S IN THE HOLE" celebration. If you notice, Lindsey appears to be looking for something with which to hit me. Please, just not in the ribs.

But that could be in retaliation because Brent did throw a beanbag at her. And he missed and struck some kind Indiana folks under the tent behind us. Our bad! We brought them beer to make it up to them.

Lindsey and Carnell won the first game, and I mixed and matched partners for the rest of the afternoon. I believe it ended up with a 2-2 split between them and me and whoever was my partner at the time.

I love this picture because you can see my toss in mid-air. Excellent timing by Amy with the camera. This is probably very soon after Brent tried to peg Lindsey with the beanbag. Hey oh.

Sunday was just a really good day. I was feeling much more like myself (aside from the whole rib thing).

Hard to go wrong with the beer truck, hot dog/hamburger buffet, great softball games and cornhole. We were FAR from the only cornhole group going. There was a whole section of grass that sort of became the cornhole playing field (pictured below).

So! While we were playing cornhole, discussion turned to next season. We want to get jerseys for next season -- or at least T-shirts with some kind of printing on it. They don't have to be legit baseball/softball jerseys. That might get too hot anyway. We want numbers and nicknames on the back.

Lindsey and Brent started coming up with nicknames for people based on things from the season. Previously, I only wanted "BG" on my jersey because that's what most of my friends call me anyway, and I rather like it.

Then, Lindsey (maybe Brent? I don't know. Fuzzy memory) said she could see my nickname being "Late Night." Well that's a pretty kick ass nickname. It has to do with a few things -- two things specifically, I believe.

First, one night during the season at the Exchange, I lost track of time playing flip-cup and ended up missing the last red line train. It ended up costing me $60 to take a cab to my car from downtown. Second, obviously, going to sleep on Friday night at 2:30 a.m. with the 4:30 a.m. wake-up call the next day. I like it.

Other team nicknames and their reasons if I can remember them:

• Evan: The Ripper because he totally clotheslined a girl while tagging her out at home on Sunday.
  
• Brent: Right Eye because he needed stitches after getting hit in the face with a ground ball. Yikes.
• Marty: Mimosa Marty because he promised to bring mimosas for us on Sunday and then did not. Fail, Marty. Fail.
• Sean: Iceman. This one I'm not sure about. Thoughts?
• Matt: Ghostface Killah because he is Irish haha.
• Lindsey: Hoover because she is pretty damn solid at second base. But you know. There was drinking, and this one turned quickly. Yeah. Lindsey, if I'm in charge of the jerseys, we can probably work on a different name for you if you want haha.
• Carnell: No-Show! Haha because he overslept on Saturday (though truthfully, I thought for sure it would be me oversleeping) and because he showed up for the last inning of our game on Sunday. Better late than never!

I think that's all the nicknames I heard. There may have been others, but I don't recall. Let me know though!

That's pretty much how it all went down. Carnell, Dale, Caitlin, Lindsey and I were the last ones remaining. We decided to go watch the intense Michigan/Penn State game going on. We played and lost to both of these teams this season. They were both really good teams, so this figured to be an awesome game. We actually sort of became friends with Penn State after we played them.

They have a girl on their team named Missy, and every time Missy saw us, she'd run up, make the wolfie hand sign and say how much she loved N.C. State. So we went down to support Penn State. Then the sky opened up. Thankfully, Georgia Tech was set up at the field with a tent, and we were able to get some shelter there.

It was a crazy rain storm, and it ended up leading to the cancellation of games for the weekend. They moved the rest of the game to this coming weekend. We don't need to go back out there though.

So, as you know, I was a huge nerd and kept track of my stats all season. Here's my final tally: 26-for-42 for a .619 batting average, 10 RBI, 7 runs scored and a slugging percentage of .857 and OBP of .613 for an OPS of 1.470. And I ended the season on a 10-game hitting streak, although there were only two of the 15 games I played in where I didn't get a hit. I'll take it!

Now I was just going on memory from each game, and in the time between the game and when I got home to record the stats, there was often heavy drinking. Those numbers represent my best recollection though. I promise.

We'll hopefully have plenty of opportunities to practice since many of the people on the team are looking into playing Fall softball in DC. That would be awesome. Don't get me wrong: I enjoy flag football very much, and I'm sure we'll all have a great time playing, but softball is my jam. I don't want to have to wait eight months or however long before the next season starts.

Now that the softball season is over, I'll be back next week with weight-loss updates. Briefly, all the softball that happened over the past few weeks led to more drinking and junk food than usual. I haven't gained any weight at all, which is awesome. But I'm still treading water at 194-195. And I'm hoping this rib thing will go away soon so I can get back in the gym and crank that up again. I might need to give it another week just to be sure though. We'll have to see how it goes.

Anyway, I'm out. Thanks so, so much, as always, for reading! Heading downtown to the Bottom Line tonight! LET'S GO!

-BG

Not Illegal, but Frowned Upon Part 2

Miss part 1 of the CAN Softball Tournament Extravaganza? Read all about it right here!

I feel like I should explain why the title of these posts is "Not Illegal but Frowned Upon." This is a story that will probably only be funny to the 12 or 13 of us who were there this weekend, but when has limited appeal ever stopped me before? That's right; it hasn't.

So Dale (the coach) emailed the team to say that bringing our own alcohol to the tournament was at least discouraged if not forbidden. That turned into Evan saying, "I didn't know bringing our own alcohol was FROWNED UPON IN THIS ESTABLISHMENT."

So I was standing with Evan, Sean, Marty, Lindsey and Keith watching a game, and the pitcher threw an illegal pitch (meaning it was either too high or too low, etc.). The ump yelled out, "Illegal pitch!"

Someone in our group then quipped, "Well that's not really illegal, it's just frowned upon. Thanks a lot, bin Laden." Which you might recognize from this scene in The Hangover.

And I proceeded to giggle like a little girl for the rest of the day at the thought of the scene. And anytime anything happened, I proceeded to say "Thanks a lot, bin Laden," at every turn. I usually like to take jokes and run them into the ground as quickly as possible. I think the team will agree when I say: mission accomplished.

Also, I giggled like a little girl just writing out the story. Easily entertained? Easily entertained.

So there you go. Thanks a lot, bin Laden.

Now, the Michigan game! Yes, we lost. Michigan went 13-1 this season. Only 14-0 James Madison had a better year, so we knew it was going to be a tough game.

As I mentioned on Monday, we really did hold our own, including drawing four or five walks in a row in one inning, causing the only pitching change to take place in the middle of an inning I saw all season in any game. I think their pitcher walked in two runs, and the coach jumped out there quick and yanked him.

The rest of day 1 was spent lounging under our tent (as seen in the picture at the left, which was actually taken on day 2) and watching other games going on around the grounds.

With 69 teams in the tournament and only five fields, there was always another game to watch, which was fantastic. Not to mention the beer truck! Five taps on the side of a keg-filled truck. See the photo below. Pretty awesome.

The whole scene was just incredible -- like a giant multi-college tailgate where everyone was having a great time.

It was ridiculous, and the team already has a list of things we need to do for next year now that we've seen how things go.

Among the things we need: inflatable couch, baby pool, slip-n-slides, pitchers for beer so we don't have to keep getting up, some kind of stereo to play ridiculous music, our own cornhole boards, etc.

I have to confess: due to my staying out too late on Friday night and only have that brief two-hour nap before the 4:30 a.m. wake-up on Saturday, I was, shall we say, "out of it" for most of Saturday. I had three drinks MAX all day. I just couldn't.

Quite a few teammates commented how they've never seen me so subdued. I almost fell asleep several times Saturday. Some people were even talking about going out Saturday night. I couldn't imagine. It's astonishing I didn't fall asleep on the drive home Saturday.

I got home, took the dog out, showered and hit the couch. I was passed out by 9:30 p.m. Thankfully, I set my alarm before I passed out. I woke up at 6:30 a.m. right on the couch. I felt pretty damn good on Sunday morning, especially comparatively.

Sunday was a different story. Because of some rain Saturday evening, game times were pushed back. We were originally scheduled to play Cornell at 9:30 a.m., but it was pushed back to 12:30 p.m. Since we were there and ready for an early start, we just started drinking.

Dale planned ahead and brought a cooler of beer since the beer truck (shown on the left) didn't open until 10 a.m. At around 11:30 we got word from tournament officials that our game was finally scheduled to start soon.

I was already four drinks in, so I ran up and ate a quick hot dog and hamburger combo, and then Matt came through for me in the clutch with some Gatorade. We were ready for the game.

We'd already played and lost to Cornell once earlier in the season, but we felt like we could hang with them. Honestly, we played some decent defense during this game; it was our offense that stunk it up. We didn't get our bats going until the third or fourth inning, and by then, Cornell already had a lead on us. It was too little, too late.

Before the game, Sean, Evan, Keith, Marty, Lindsey and I were watching Villanova play and giving their second baseman props because she was diving all over the place for balls (that's what she said). We talked about how it's been so long since any of us had done it, and we're not sure we'd really like to lay out for a ball anymore.

Well.

It's the second-to-last inning. I'm playing right field, Dale is playing left-center and Jen is playing right-center. Normally, since most balls are not hit to right field, we liked to play the right-center fielder shallow to cut off some of the balls hit up the middle. That meant the right fielder (me in this case) had to cover a bit more ground. No problem. I was an outfielder growing up. I know how to get around and judge fly balls out there. I rather enjoy it a lot, actually.

Sure enough. Jen was playing shallow, and a ball is hit over her head. I saw it, and I thought I could get to it. So I took off. I was tracking it, and I could tell it was not going to be easy to get there.

The ball was coming down, and I knew I had to dive for it. I was running from right field back and toward center field, so as I dive for the ball, I'm kind of jumping into the air backward with my left arm extended. I felt the ball hit the tip of my glove and bounce away, and I landed hard on my left side.

I hopped up to make sure someone was getting the ball (Dale did), but I quickly doubled over because it occurred to me I couldn't breathe. And there was a ridiculous amount of pain coming from the ribs on my left side. Thankfully, there were no other balls hit my way during that inning, and I didn't need to take the field in the bottom of the seventh because Cornell won.

I won't say I've lost a step or two in my increasing age because that implies I had the steps to lose in the first place. Speed was never my game. But if I'd been even one step closer to where the ball landed when I started running, I believe I would have caught it. I might not have held onto it when I landed, but it would have been in my glove in the air haha.

I spent much of the rest of Sunday icing my ribs and in moderate-to-relatively-severe pain.

It is now Wednesday afternoon, and this is the most pain I've ever experienced. But! It only hurts when I move, speak, cough, laugh or breathe. So as long as I don't do any of those things, it isn't so bad. I recognize now how exceptionally lucky I've been. I've never broken a bone, never gotten stitches, never needed to go to the doctor for an injury, which is remarkable considering how active I was and how many sports I played growing up.

This is ridiculous though. There aren't enough painkillers in the world right now. If this isn't a cracked rib, I don't even want to think about how much that hurts. It's not necessarily excruciating, but this is still pretty terrible, which leads me to believe it's probably a really bad bruise (best-case scenario) or a possible cracked rib (worst-case scenario).

So, yeah. Great haha. Second-to-last inning of the last game of the season, and that's when I hurt myself. Figures. Almost made it the whole season. *sigh.

Anyway, this got a bit longer than I intended. I know; I wrote something and got a little verbose. Who knew?!

I'll pick it up with the conclusion in part 3 on Friday, which will cover our cornhole adventures and our team nicknames! As well as any other randomness that comes to mind while I'm writing, which always happens.

LET'S GO!

-BG

Not Illegal, but Frowned Upon Part 1

Thanks a lot, bin Laden.

CAN Softball Tournament Part 1

So this past weekend was the Capital Alumni Network league-wide softball tournament. It was, basically, ridiculous.

I may have talked about it briefly last week, but this weekend was the most fun I've had in a long, long time. Bruised/cracked rib, notwithstanding (more on that later).

It all started Friday night with Katie's birthday at Public Bar on 18th St. downtown. I met one of the other Katies (yes, there are many -- three we regularly interact with, in fact) at Farragut North, and we walked over to Public around 6 p.m. Now, going into the night, we learned our first softball game in the tournament was scheduled to start at 7 a.m. Taking into account checking in with tournament officials and warming up, that meant we needed to meet by 6 a.m. at the field.

The tournament is held at the Goddard Softball Complex, near NASA. It's at least a 45-minute drive from my apartment. So I woke up at 4:30 on Saturday morning. Shoot me in the face.

So what did I do? I naturally stayed out until past midnight on Friday, and I didn't get to sleep until 2:30 a.m.

Katie's party was great fun, as always, and I'd never been to Public before. It's pretty awesome. It has a great roof-top patio, which was luckily quite pleasant on Friday despite it being August in a swamp environment. Evan made the wise decision to check out by 9 p.m., given the ridiculous wake-up call just a few hours away.

Major props to Lindsey and Carnell for not even showing up until after 10 p.m., knowing full well they had to wake up just more than six hours later. Although one of them was more successful than the other. More on that later haha.

Once midnight rolled around, I knew it was time for me to begin my trek home. I got to the Dupont station, and the escalators were out. Now. If you're unaware, the street escalators at Dupont are some of the longest escalators I've ever seen -- the kind where you get vertigo when you have to walk down because of how high up you are.

Multiply that by several drinks, and I'm just glad I arrived at the bottom of my own volition and not due to gravity.

I got on my train and tried not to fall asleep. The train arrived at the Bethesda station, where a station operator got on and announced, "if you stay on this train, you will be going back downtown."

Ah, shit. That's no good. Apparently all red line stations between Bethesda and Rockville were closed and out of service. I made my way upstairs to the street to find a fleet of shuttle buses waiting for the passengers. Except there are no signs on them, and they're not all going to the same stations. I got on one bus, and someone got on and announced, "if you're not going to Grosvenor or White Flint (I wasn't) you shouldn't be on this shuttle."

Mother of God.

Signs. Invest in them. Let us know where to go before we get on the damn buses.

I finally found the correct bus, and ended up at the Rockville station. I asked the driver, "aren't you going to go to Shady Grove, too?" He said, "No, you need to go wait on a train to get there."

It was 1:30 in the morning at that point. Train service isn't exactly prompt or frequent at that time of night. I could not envision myself waiting on a train to ride one stop. So I just hopped in a cab and got to my car.

I finally got in bed by 2:30, and set my alarm for my brief two-hour nap. The poor dog was so confused. She normally greets me all happy and waggly when my alarm starts going off. Saturday morning, at 4:30, she was still on the couch, looking at me with half-closed, sleep-filled eyes, as if to say, "you have got to be outside your damn mind."

Hard to argue with that.

After I took her outside, I got in the shower. Upon getting out of the shower, I see a missed call and a frantic text from Lindsey. Apparently Carnell is not quite as cut out for the rock-and-roll lifestyle as some of us haha. He was not answering her repeated calls or texts. Well, nothing to do but get to the field and keep calling. He did eventually make it!

It was still dark the whole drive there, and the sun only started to poke its head out when we met up to carpool to the field. We set up our tent to claim our spot and started warming up.

Because of our stellar regular-season record, we were playing in a preliminary round game against a team with a similarly stellar regular-season record. So 1-13 N.C. State took on 2-12 Delaware for the right to face No. 2 Michigan (13-1) in the winner's bracket.

Here's my thing: it was a double-elimination tournament, and we had as good a chance as any at winning a game in the tournament, which is something a lot of teams weren't going to be able to say. Let's take care of business and play up to our potential. We WILL win if we can do that.

It was actually pretty intense. It went back and forth the whole game. We jumped out to a 3-0 lead early. Delaware battled back and took a 5-3 lead. We fought back again and retook the lead at 7-5. Delaware tied it at 7, then took a 9-7 lead. We scored four runs in the top of the sixth to take an 11-9 lead.

Normally, we play seven-inning games, but because there were so many games that needed to be played, the ump said we'd call it after six innings if one team was ahead. So we went into the bottom of the sixth up 11-9 with Delaware needing three runs to win outright. Naturally, they scored two runs immediately to tie the score at 11. Then they loaded the bases with no outs.

Now, in slow-pitch softball, there's a mat behind home plate. If the pitch hits the mat, it's a strike. It's hard to consistently hit the mat. All they needed was a walk to win the game. The first batter swung early, and popped it up to shortstop. The second batter lightly tapped it back to the pitcher. Evan threw home for the force out. Bases still loaded, two outs.

The next hitter popped it up right to the left fielder. It was one of our best defensive inning of the season, and it couldn't have come at a better time. We faced bases loaded with no outs, and if a run scored, we would have lost the game.

Instead, we held them and proceeded to score four runs in the "one-pitch" rules in the top of the seventh. Basically, every pitch is either a walk, a hit or an out. If the pitch is a ball, you walk. If it's a strike or a foul, you're out. Intense.

Four runs and three Delaware outs later, we'd won our first game in the tournament. Man, LET'S GO. It was spectacular.

We won as many games in the tournament as we did all season, and it was so incredibly satisfying, especially after one of the Delaware players was being an asshole to our first baseman after a questionable call where she should have been called out. Whatevs. Victory.

After the game, we questioned the wisdom of swinging the bat at ALL during the bases-loaded, no-outs scenario. Chances are, Evan is going to walk ONE of the three hitters that were coming up. Just playing the odds, it's damn hard to hit the mat every time. And you had THREE chances to walk ONE batter and win the game! Take your chances on the strikeout and force Evan to hit the mat every time. As Sean said after the game, "Don't even bother bringing a bat to the plate. Force him to make the pitches." Alas, they did not do that. We won, 15-11, after scoring eight runs in the top of the sixth and seventh innings combined. LET'S GO!

After an hour break, we played No. 2 Michigan, and, predictably, lost. But we put a scare into them.

They were routinely destroying teams in the regular season, and they were probably expecting to roll us, too. But we led 2-0 after the first inning, and we were tied 4-4 after the third inning. They took a lead, but they were only up by four after the fifth inning. We put a little scare into them when the game probably should never have been that close in the first place.

Michigan eventually scored a bunch of runs, and won in the end. But we held our own pretty well considering how good a team Michigan was.

That'll do it for part 1 of the CAN Tournament Extravaganza. Coming later, the exciting conclusion, including my cornhole prowess, my possibly cracked rib and giving the team nicknames for our jerseys next season.

Good times.

-BG

LET'S GO

I am on the cusp of good news. I can feel it. It's coming. Too much is going right for me right now for this not to come through.

First of all, I've weighed in two days in a row now at 195 pounds. Progress, my friends! That's 32 pounds down with 15 to 20 more to go. God I feel so good. I just can't even begin to express it.

Do me a favor and go to my Facebook page. First, stalk a few of my photos. Specifically, look at the ones from Christmas where I'm wearing my kick-ass abominable snowman shirt. And look at my Halloween photo where I'm dressed in a Yankees uniform.

Now, look at my latest profile picture, which was taken after a softball game this past Tuesday night. That's the first new picture I've seen of myself in a couple months. What a difference!! Jesus. Look how small I look! Wow.

I'd say I don't mean to brag, but I absolutely do mean to brag. Seeing visual evidence of progress is like a shot of pure adrenaline. All I want to do is kick even MORE ass now. Still work to do. Like I just said, I've got at least 15 or 20 more pounds to lose, and I really can't wait to get there. I feel so good. Wow.

What else is going on?

Well, tonight is the end-of-season party for our softball league where they'll announce the tournament seeds and pairings. Plus, it's $25 all you can eat/drink. Sold! Man, I hate that our season is already over. It went by so fast.

We have our league-wide tournament next weekend, but then we just have to wait for the next season to start. Well, that's not entirely true. I'm going to play flag football for the N.C. State team, too, and so are quite a few of the softball folks. But man I love me some softball haha.

Flag football will be pretty great, though. I've heard the State team has been around for a while and is actually quite good. Like I mentioned last week, I think a lot of our softball team's problems came because we had no continuity from last year. There was no team last year. I think we'll be much better next year now that we have a really great group of people to work with.

But the flag football team has been around for quite a few years and apparently regularly competes for the league title. That'll be fun.

And then Sunday is going to be fantastic. First, I'll be heading to Nats Park at noon for some pre-game pre-gaming, and then a 1:35 game against the Mets. Katie from softball decided she wanted to have a "Sunday Funday for No Good Reason." Well, I can get behind that. So I'll be heading down there with Katie and, like, 17 of her friends haha.

We'll buy the cheap $5 tickets and then just hang out at the huge bar in the outfield. LET'S GO!

Man I love going to Nats games. Plus! I'll get to see Jordan Zimmermann pitch. He's a really great young pitcher who sometimes gets lost in the Strasburgmania going on here. Zimmermann is legit though. In the next few years, if Strasburg can come back successfully and Zimmermann stays healthy, a 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation of Strasburg-Zimmermann will be pretty stout, man. Not bad at all.

The main event of the weekend, though, is 6:30 p.m. at the 9:30 Club downtown. REEL BIG FISH!! They are so much fun to see live. So much energy, such a great stage presence. Fun songs you can dance to, and since I know all the lyrics to all the songs, I will undoubtedly be screaming along, like you do.

I just can't wait haha. It's going to be a really great weekend.

Now, the impending good news about which I am extremely hopeful is I've advanced to the next stage with the company from last week. If you'll recall, I had a job interview last Monday, and they contacted me yesterday to invite me back for some more interviews and a writing test. Man, let's go.

So there you go. Almost everything is going right for me at the moment. If I can get this one more thing to go right -- wow. Jubilation.

The energy has been uncomfortably bottled up for more than four months now -- since I narrowly missed out after being a finalist for another position. I have to say, there's a chance I just spontaneously combust if/when I get the good news for which I'm hoping.

Bottom line: I feel good, man. Really good. Life is good. Good news is coming. I can feel it.

-BG

Softball is Too Much Fun

Let me tell you about some softball!

I've briefly mentioned softball a few times since I resumed regular blogging back in early June, but I'd like to devote some more time to it today. Because it's incredible. I seriously cannot believe how much fun it is.

Listen, I'm a baseball guy. Baseball is my favorite. Always has been; always will be. Don't get me wrong; I love football, too. But I grew up with baseball. It's in my blood.

I played in rec leagues from the time I was 6 years old until I went to college. During the summers in elementary school and middle school, I'd go outside with my bat and ball as soon as I woke up and didn't bother heading home until I heard my mom whistle at dinner time and/or dark.

All that playing, I eventually got pretty good at it. I tried out for my high school team once as a sophomore. I didn't make it, but I was one of the last cuts. The team was also nationally ranked at the time, so I didn't feel too badly about it. I kept playing in the rec leagues, though, and that was plenty good enough for me.

That was most definitely the peak of my playing abilities. I could hit high 80s pitching. I had a pretty solid arm from left field. I wasn't the fastest guy in the world -- never have been, but I could get around the bases.

Well, here's the thing about getting older (and, also, not really working on those skills much after high school). That's all pretty much gone now haha. I went to the cages a few weeks ago, and I was just standing outside the 80-85 mph cage, and I could hardly see it, never mind hit it. I couldn't believe there was a time when I could hit it. I stuck to the 60-70 mph cages.

Softball has been a way to have all the fun of baseball in a more low-key environment. As I've mentioned before, this is an alumni network league, which means I play for N.C. State (which, by the way, makes it LITERALLY a million times more fun).

State didn't field a team last year, so we're really trying to get back on our feet this year and build some continuity going forward. In other words, we're not very good this year haha. As Evan put it last night, we're the best 1-10 team in the league.

We don't take ourselves overly seriously, and we always, always have a kick-ass time playing. And that's really the most important thing. We've played a couple of teams that took themselves too seriously, and they were major downers. Guys. This isn't the ACC. It's a beer league. Take it down a notch or two.

We've got a great group of guys and girls, and I think if we can keep the team together next season we'll be in much better shape -- not unlike the East Dillon Lions from season 4 to season 5 of Friday Night Lights. This season has been about finding a rhythm.

With such a new group of players (myself included, by the way), we spent the majority of the season just trying to figure out where everyone was best-suited to play in the field and in the batting order. Most of the teams we've played have been together for a couple years, so they had no adjustments to make, really. I really like our team though. We're really getting there.

Our problem all season as been slow starts. Typical N.C. State, am I right? We just lose our minds in the first two innings and dig ourselves a huge hole. If you look at about half of our losses, we ended up outscoring the other team for the last four or five innings in each game!

We're seriously not very far away from being a .500 team. It's a game of inches, and we're working our fannies off out there. We're getting there!

Naturally, being the huge baseball nerd I am, I've been keeping track of all my batting stats for the season. We still have three regular season games to go (a double-header tomorrow, and a game against Georgetown on Tuesday night), but here's my tally so far:

• I've played in nine of our 11 games so far (I joined the team after it played its first two games already).
• I've hit safely in seven of the nine, and I have at least two hits in five of those games. The only two games where I didn't get a hit came on the same day I hurt my arm, and it was agonizingly painful swinging a bat (and throwing a ball, for that matter).
• In five of the seven games in which I recorded a hit, I hit safely in each at-bat, i.e. I never made an out.
• I've got four doubles and two triples. The rest are singles. I'd really like to add a home run either this weekend or Tuesday night. I just missed one earlier this season (in a 4-for-4 performance in our 20-4 win over South Carolina).
• I've scored five runs, knocked in another six runs, walked once and hit one sac fly.
  
• My batting average is .625.
• On-base percentage of .640.
• Slugging percentage of .958.
• And my OPS is 1.598.

And yes, I realize pretty much only Mike and maybe Nick will care at all about some of those (or even know what it all means).

What does it all mean? Not very much, really. It's just so much fun playing, and I like to know how I'm doing.

With our usual coach out of town for a few days, I've been helping to run things in his absence. It's been a lot of logistics in terms of making sure we have enough players, that we have enough female players (three girls for the first 10 players, and then one girl for every two guys after that) and enough alums playing (at least 75 percent of your roster in a game must be alumni).

Setting the line-up was fun though haha. It's all fun, really. I know. I'm a dork. This isn't the first time I've heard that.

Yesterday was rough though. If you don't get a permit for a field, you actually have to go and just sit on a spot on the National Mall to make sure you have a field. If you saw on my Facebook wall or Twitter yesterday, it was 98 degrees. But don't worry, it actually felt like 113. I was just sitting there with another teammate for, like, three hours waiting for the game to start. Sweltering doesn't even begin to describe it.

Tomorrow won't be much better. High of 101 (heat index of 112), and we've got a double-header against Cornell and Richmond from 1:30 until probably 4:30 or 5. I bought a huge case of water and a ton of Gatorade to bring.

I will tolerate no casualties on my watch!

Wish us luck tomorrow, and prepare the intravenous fluids!

-BG

Looking Ahead

Quite a busy few days looming ahead here. And it's all over the place, too.

Allow me to take a stroll through the next several days and check out what's going on. And yes, this post is as much for my organization and sanity as it is for entertainment. Whatevs.

Friday (today!)

OK, not a whole lot going on today. I'm mostly taking it easy after last night. That's the funny thing with age. It doesn't necessarily prevent you from going out and having as much as you used to, but it definitely takes an extra minute or two to get back to life again...haha.

But yeah, last night was a softball game followed by the customary trip to our bar afterward. The game started off rough. We were down TWO players at the start of the game. Illinois had to let us borrow someone to play catcher, and we were missing an outfielder, so there were plenty of gaps out there.

They ended up scoring 13 runs in the first two innings. Ridiculous! We outscored them something like 5-2 once our full team showed up, but lost 15-8 I think.

Anyway, we kicked some serious ass at flip-cup afterward. Indiana's team challenged us, and we immediately won the first seven rounds we played. I think the final tally was 9-3 or 10-3? Domination, son!

In other Friday news, my future wife Hope Solo will be the guest on PTI today, so I'm pretty pumped about that. And the big news tonight is the 90-minute series finale for Friday Night Lights.

A lot of people I talk to are so skeptical of FNL. "Oh that high school football show?" Well, yes. It has some high school football, but it's mostly about this coach and his family and the kids on his teams and their relationships and the unbelievable roller coaster of emotions small-town football puts them through.

Seriously, it has some of the best writing and acting I've ever, ever seen on a television show (aside from a particularly ridiculous story line in season 2). The majority of the shows five seasons have been as good as television should be and can be. I am simultaneously excited and depressed about tonight's finale.

I believe the show is on Netflix Instant at the moment, and it is so worth your time to check it out. I promise. Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose. So good.

Saturday

Saturday I will go running. Because I most definitely did not go running today...haha. I didn't wake up with a hangover, but I felt it would be unwise to push my luck on that front.

I've got a LOT of shit to do around my apartment because it's about time to start preparations for a temporary move to Charlotte. I really hope it doesn't come to that, but what can you do? I will do what I do: roll with it and make the best of it.

And kind of an ongoing thing for the next week or so is I'm going to be one of two acting coaches for the softball team while our main coach is out of town. For the win!

But what that means is all I'm going to do is think about the team for the next week (which includes three games). It reminds of the time in grad school when Clark went out of town for the summer, and I served as the sports editor for Technician for the summer.

The paper only published once a week in the summers, but I LITERALLY thought of nothing else all day every day. Every single day it was, "oh god what stories will I run this week." "What stories can I write this week." "Who is around to write stories this week." I'm getting anxious just thinking about how anxious I was running the section for the summer. Ha.

I seriously could not imagine being the full-time sports editor during the semester when we published Monday through Friday.

Anyway. Judging by the weather forecast this weekend, I will be spending most of it outside. Great success.

Sunday

Big TV day on Sunday, I gotta say.

I'll probably hit up some church after walking Allie in the morning. But oh boy is there ever some shit to watch.

First we have the Women's World Cup final going on with the U.S. vs. Japan. I wrote about my feelings on the U.S. women's national team on Wednesday. I can't wait to watch this game. Let's go, ladies. Kick some ass.

And then Sunday night is the season 4 premiere of Breaking Bad, which is maybe the best show currently airing on television. Top notch, man.

It's also really easy to catch up on it if you haven't been watching. The first season is only seven episodes, and seasons two and three are only 13 episodes each. There's nothing I can say that will do the show justice. It is just amazingly done in every aspect, and I am so, so excited about its return.

Monday

So what's up on Monday? Oh yeah! Job interview downtown! Again, zero percent chance I name the company here, but you know. There it is. I feel good about how the phone interview went last week, and I like the company and the work they do.

When you combine that with how good I've been feeling over the past couple of weeks -- I mean, my confidence is at an all-time high because of my kick-ass weight loss, and I've had a much greater positive outlook lately than before.

Shit's just good, man. This could be it. But I need to get down there and talk to them and see how it goes before I really get excited. I'm just happy to have another opportunity. LET'S GO!

Well that's the next few days. Thursday, we're playing Penn State in softball, and then Saturday we have a doubleheader with Cornell and Richmond. CAN'T WAIT!

I will be working with Evan to set the line-ups and run the games, and I couldn't be more excited. It really is irrational how much I love playing in this damn softball league haha. Whatevs!

Questions? Comments? LET ME KNOOOOW!

And only like six people will understand why I wrote that phrase the way I wrote it. Ha. I'm going for mass appeal here, folks.

I'm out!

-BG

Weekend Update!

I know I missed a post on Friday. That's my bad. I was actually in the process of writing a post that I planned on putting up just before I left to go downtown for my softball game.

It stormed something serious Friday afternoon though. I was planning on leaving to go to the game around 4:30ish, so I was writing feverishly to get it posted before I left.

The problem with writing quickly is the autosave doesn't catch as much as if I take my time and add a little here and there. I'm usually pretty good about stopping to save pretty frequently while I'm writing, but I was just trying to finish so I could leave.

Then the power went out.

It came back a few minutes later, but when I logged back in to Blogger, most of my post had not saved. I got so disgusted that I just closed the window and left for the game. I'm sure you know what that's like. You write so much, and then something happens and you lose it. You just get frustrated and don't even want to finish.

Well that's what happened on Friday.

Anyway, since I wrote you a novel on Wednesday when I described how watching (500) Days of Summer, like, 15 times can help put some perspective on a break-up (which I went through not too long ago), I figured I would keep it short and sweet today.

So here's a brief, general life update.

The past week has been pretty busy with working out and job interviews. Excellent news there, that's for sure.

I'm now going through the process with three more places, which I will not name here for fear of Google's revenge. Two are PR firms downtown and the third is a place not too far from my apartment. I feel good about all three initial interviews, and they all are still interested, so we'll see how it goes.

On the health and fitness front, I still ran and lifted last week, but I backed off the intensity a little bit on account of a ridiculously sore muscle in my back. That seems to have paid off since I'm no longer feeling any discomfort. Today, I went right back to it. I upped my distance to 3.5 miles today in an effort to work up to running four miles a day on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, starting next week.

HOWEVAH. If you've been keeping up with my progress, you know I've lost 25 pounds over the past few months. And now, the really super excellent news is after running and walking Allie today, I stepped on the scale and saw 199.5!! Now, I know that was some water weight, but I haven't seen under 200 on the scale in two years. Feels good, man. Feels good.

Won't be too much longer before I'm back under 200 for good. Let's go.

In other news, the softball game I was so excited about on Friday ended up being rained out anyway. Fail. We haven't had a game in a month! And the cruel thing is the long lay-off came after our first win of the season, which has no doubt killed off the momentum we managed to collect in our 20-4 ass-beating of South Carolina.

In true N.C. State fashion, we can't even win right. *sigh.

Oh well. We still met up at our bar to hang out. After games, the bar has $10 pitchers, but for rainouts, they do $8 pitchers. So that was great. I easily killed about a pitcher and a half of beer. And then, I have to say. Evan, you sir are a dangerous man with your affinity for shots of Jameson.

That didn't stop me from having two of them, but my God. I swear I could still taste the Jameson on Sunday night. The metro ride home Friday night is by far the closest I've ever come to breaking my streak.

I was pretty convinced I was going to need to get off the train at one point. And then I had to cab home from the metro station at like 1:30 a.m., and then cab back the next day to get my car. Good lord.

Sunday was pretty great. I went to the Nats/Rockies game with a friend from the softball team. The Nats lost, which is the first time in six years that the team I was rooting for lost a baseball game I've attended. But the Rockies pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez was absolutely dealing. He had a perfect game heading into the fifth inning!

I was actually kind of disappointed when the Nats broke it up in the bottom of the fifth because I would have loved to see history like that. Anyway, the Nats ended up losing 2-1, and we headed out to a bar for the rest of the night.

I was most decidedly taking it easy after Friday night because oh my God no thank you. But it was a good time. It's always good to get out of the apartment, you know?

Sunday was all about some rest. And the U.S. women's soccer team. Because holy shit. What a win, man. And also, Hope Solo. Yes, ma'am. Marry me immediately. She's pretty kick ass.

Anyway, brief update and all, so I'm out. Softball game on Thursday at 6 p.m. at 14th St. and Constitution! Come watch us hopefully kick some ass!

-BG